Thursday, May 14, 2009

U.S. climate bill offers $100 billion in "bonus" permits

From Reuters:

A compromise U.S. climate change bill would give electric utilities up to $100 billion in bonus carbon pollution permits, if they capture and store their greenhouse gas emissions, a key Democratic lawmaker said on Thursday.

The legislation would also allow U.S. companies to offset up to 2 billion tons of their emissions by funding green projects in the United States and in other countries, said Rep. Rick Boucher, who is involved in the negotiations over the bill.

The bonuses for utilities would be on top of the pollution permits they would get for free -- 35 percent of all the free permits to U.S. firms and about 90 percent of the emissions permits they will initially need -- Boucher said....MORE